Historical and Contemporary Women Leaders

Historical and Contemporary Women Leaders

Living in a patriarchal society, women, for as long as mankind has existed, have been at a disadvantage. This is evident in the constant struggles that women have had throughout history. However, even if these struggles have persisted, there are some differences depending on the time period. In leadership, women in history and in contemporary have faced similar and also different challenges. One of the challenges that both historical and contemporary women have faced is lifestyle conflicts. Notably, women have always been considered the primary caretakers of their families, which often works against the demands of being a leader. As the job gets more demanding, especially because of a leadership role, it constrains their caregiver role, forcing women to choose between their careers and families (Akanji et al., 2020).

Another challenge that women both in historical and contemporary leadership positions share is stereotyping. Consistently, men are associated with traits suited for a leader, such as assertiveness, task orientation, and aggression. On the contrary, women are viewed as quiet, modest, and nurturing, among other stereotypes that paint women as incapable of handling a leadership role. A third challenge in leadership that women in history and contemporary women share is bias and discrimination. These include hostile work environments and sexual harassment (Folke et al., 2020), all of which hinder women from attaining leadership and executing their roles when in leadership positions.

On the other hand, there is a contrast between the degree to which women in history and contemporary women have faced challenges regarding leadership. For a long time, women had no civil rights, which is not the case today. Therefore, women in historical times were at a much greater disadvantage in leading and becoming leaders than contemporary women. Further, gender discrimination was a huge part of society, with women not even being employed but expected to be homemakers. Women were denied and prohibited from opportunities that would enable them to become leaders. For example, in the civil rights movement, women like Rosa Parks (Pettinger, 2022) had to take up lesser roles like strategist roles and advocacy, while men like Martin K. Luther took up leadership roles. Contrariwise, today women get into leadership positions but have to fight lesser challenges like the gender pay gap (Phipps & Prieto, 2021). Lastly, while women in history faced outright discrimination, threats, violence, and even death, today’s discrimination towards women in leadership is based more on unconscious biases.

 References

Akanji, B., Mordi, C., & Ajonbadi, H. A. (2020). The experiences of work-life balance, stress, and coping lifestyles of female professionals: Insights from a developing country. Employee Relations: The International Journal, 42(4), 999-1015.

Folke, O., Rickne, J., Tanaka, S., & Tateishi, Y. (2020). Sexual harassment of women leaders. Daedalus, 149(1), 180-197.

Pettinger, T. (2022, September 20). Women who changed the world. Biography Online. https://www.biographyonline.net/people/women-who-changed-world.html

Phipps, S. T., & Prieto, L. C. (2021). Leaning in: A historical perspective on influencing women’s leadership. Journal of Business Ethics, 173, 245-259.a:link {text-decoration: none;}a:visited {text-decoration: none;
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After reading the module resources, compare and contrast the challenges faced by historical women leaders to those faced by contemporary women leaders.

To complete this assignment, review the Discussion Rubric.

Reading resources: https://eds-p-ebscohost-com.ezproxy.snhu.edu/eds/detail/detail?vid=0&sid=479dab9f-2344-4f28-b5c8-7832dcc90056%40redis&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWRzLWxpdmUmc2NvcGU9c2l0ZQ%3d%3d#AN=000545281300002&db=edswss

https://www.biographyonline.net/people/women-who-changed-world.html

You can also use peer-reviewed articles in the Shapiro Library

Three paragraphs
APA 7th edition
Times New Roman 12
In-text citations W/page numbers
References
Due Thursday 7/6